The Little Dove #2 ✔️

31. It's Time For A Game Change

CHAPTER 31: It's Time For A Game Change

(MARVIN'S POV)

I give my twin a cautious look, "Going to New York alone isn't the best idea you've had, Mel." I tell her, packing more of my suits into my suitcase, grabbing my laptop, I slide that in too. Melanie stands in front of our childhood pictures hanging in frames along the wall of my bedroom at the estate we share with Mom and Dad. It had been one month after everything that happened, one month and two days since Melanie was hospitalised after being harmed by the crooked detective, after learning what happened to four girls that just happened to share a similar phenotype to my sister.

Her gloved hands are folded into her red trench coat pockets, her hair tied up in a floral bun, her back is to me, "I need to figure out the loopholes in their story. Marvin, that elite group is different, collaboratively and colossally different compared to Dad's. They're mixed up in this, in whatever has been going down at that Academy. I want to put these pieces together, and sadly, I know Edmund is a part of something in this, he has a dark past, Marvin. I need to know if I can fully trust the man I'm falling in love with." She whispers, straightening one of the photos, I fold my arms, walking towards her and standing next to her.

"You already know that I'm willing to attend the academy, as your eyes and ears, part of the elite, or even that Claude Borne might trip up, but venturing off to New York, Mom thinks you're proposing a new landmark." I say, turning towards her profile. The house was quiet. Mom and Dad we're both in Chicago with Jamison and most of our main guards when an attack on the division raised question on whether there were others who sided with an old enemy of the family's...Aaron Dark-wood.

Mathias, he was at a boarding school in Switzerland, upon askance of Mom, who needed Mathias to focus more on his studies. I didn't disagree, considering Melanie's grades and my own were far higher than his are currently.

Melanie keeps her amethyst eyes on the photos, "When I left the hospital, I didn't see Forthright, apparently he's taken up a permanent offer at the academy, maintaining his role as the mental doctor at the school. He may have saved me, Marvin, he may have removed Johnson from hurting me, ending the recurring killings of Maven and those girls-lord knows who else-I just cannot fully trust any of them, unfortunately, that means Lorraine too." She meets my eyes.

I clench my jaw, straightening my jacket, "She'll get a surprise when, instead of you turning up, she'll see me. That might change the game you've started." I whisper, tilting my head.

Melanie scoffs, "Oh, I didn't start it. I was handed the first piece, and forced into this without a choice in the works, I'm trying to beat a game that calls upon a history I still don't know the full twists and turns of. Look, you said you wanted to help, I need to know if you're all in?" She suggests, matter of question and hope. A question she didn't need to ask.

I nod strictly, turning back to my suitcases, "I am more than happy to do so, but I've been to New York, the city of lights they say, the city that never sleeps...it's dangerous, because unlike a city, we eventually have to close our eyes, making us vulnerable to a city that never stops running." I say to her, not attempting to sound poetic, but I had been to New York, it's not the easiest of places.

Melanie never liked easy though.

Something that ran through our veins like a curse...but it was certainly a blessing too.

She turns to me, "Thank you for the tips, Marvin, but I'm there for answers and deciding on the landmark. I'd have to talk to Mom regarding those funds. She doesn't want me further investigating, but I'm in too deep for this."